Our pick of this week’s art events: 11 – 17 December

Our pick of this week’s art events: 11 – 17 December

RA Recommends

By Daisy Clery

Published 11 December 2015

From a unique photography project on display in Liverpool to an installation of interactive tales in South London, we bring you the must-see shows opening this week.

Rose English: A Premonition of the Act

Camden Arts Centre, London, 11 December 2015 – 6 March 2016
Influential British artist Rose English has spent ten years developing A Premonition of the Act, an installation comprising glass works, video, a storyboard and a sound installation. English collaborated with composer Luke Stoneham on the audible element; her libretto – a collection of words lifted from her artistic oeuvre, 2006 to present – comes together with Stoneham’s score in an “aural diagram” or musical description of the acrobatics on display across three separate screens. Part opera, part circus and part art installation, A Premonition of the Act feels like a work in progress – leading the viewer to wonder what will happen next?

Rose English,Ornamental Happiness,2006.

Photo: Alastair Muir.

Stephen King: Dry Your Eyes Princess

Museum of Liverpool, Liverpool, 16 December 2015 – 31 January 2016
Stephen King has photographed 12 transgender veterans from the British Armed Forces for this new exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool. Dry Your Eyes Princess has been created in collaboration with Dr Emma Vickers, Senior Lecturer in History, at Liverpool John Moores University, whose research is focused on the experience of being transgender before, during and after military service. King’s images are informed by academic study and candid conversation: the result is intimate, revealing and deeply personal. King and Vickers hope to encourage tolerance and understanding of the trans veteran community through their complimentary practices.

Heman Chong: An Arm, a Leg and Other Stories

South London Gallery, London, 11 December 2015 – 28 February 2016
This exhibition is all about stories. The floor of South London Gallery’s main room is covered in a million blacked-out business cards, the walls are decorated with stickers and paintings, and a small signpost reads: “THIS PAVILION IS STRICTLY FOR COMMUNITY BONDING ACTIVITIES ONLY”. Multimedia Singaporean artist and writer Heman Chong’s first story begins with this instruction, and other narratives are scattered throughout the building: in the gallery shop second-hand novels are available to visitors, a designated performance area will see a short story learnt and performed between 1pm and 5pm every Wednesday, and upstairs the galleries have become a casual residence for fiction writers. This show of old and new work examines ideas of exchange, as well as the rules that govern codes of behaviour.

Heman Chong,Star-Begotten / H.G. Wells,2013.

Signed and dated verso. Unique..

Heman Chong,Index (Down). from the series 'Surfacing',2009.

3000 self-adhesive stickers applied directly onto wall..

Dimensions variable.. Courtesy of the artist and Wilkinson Gallery, London.

Alice Theobald and Atomik Architecture: It’s not who you are, it’s how you are

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, 10 December 2015 – 10 April 2016
BALTIC Ryder commissions bring together artists and emerging architectural practices. For the second commission in the series, performance artist Alice Theobald has worked with Atomik Architecture, a young London-based practice with an eye for creativity. It’s not who you are, it’s how you are is a site-specific installation that includes elements of sound, video and live performance. Purpose built rooms are round rather than square, and are filled with everyday objects made strange. The performance is both improvised and choreographed while the accompanying soundscape explores the circularity and slippage of language as well as the relationship between performer and viewer. Everything in BALTIC’s Level 2 gallery is a little off-kilter: this collaboration is a unique, aesthetic interpretation of the uncanny.

Alice Theobald and Atomik Architecture, BALTIC Ryder Commission

Image courtesy Alice Theobald and Atomik Architecture

Oscuramento: The Wars of Fabio Mauri

Hauser & Wirth, London, 11 December 2015 – 6 February 2016
Fabio Mauri uses art to work through the trauma he suffered growing up in Fascist Italy. His formative years were framed by dogmatic ideology and war. These issues colour his work, which spans photography, film, installation, performance and theoretical writing. Oscuramento: The Wars of Fabio Mauri is a sobering display. At once personal and political, it critiques collective cultural memory and reminds us of what history can forget. A highlight of the show can be found in a separate room within the main Hauser & Wirth Gallery – Oscuramento (“Darkening” in English) brings together 30 life-size wax figures, all in military dress, one in the image of Mussolini. At a time when the world is once again threatened with international conflict, this exhibition feels both apposite and important.